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Baal is the Arabic word for concern,thought & mind. It is also Urdu for hair.

March 11, 2007

Sakina and Raya: Egyptian Serial Killers

Sakina andRaya

In the music video I posted about earlier, Egyptian singer Shams' song Ahlan Ezayek, Shams in one scene plays the part of Sakina and Raya. Concidered to be some of the 20th centuries most ruthless criminals and have inspired the makings of both movies and theatrical plays in their name.

In the year 1919 in a poor district of Alexandria called Al-Labban, the two sisters began their murder spree. They had opened several brothel like houses which they ran together. Raya would often be the one going to markets eyeing out the women with the most jewelry on them (in order to steal it) and striking up conversation using some excuse to lure them to their brothels. There both the sisters husbands would help them kill the victims through suffocation and bury them in the back yard.One day in 1920 a man noted the authorities, he had found a skull in the grounds of his house (previously owned by Sakina). Police began sniffing a trail that literally led them to her sister Raya who was burning unusual amounts of incense in her house. Raya had 2 bodies in her grounds while 15 other bodies were found at Sakinas house. The victims were all women, mostly married, in the ages 17-50.

The death sentence, at that time hanging, had never been given to females previously. However Raya and Sakina broke that trend and were hanged in 1921, along with their husbands and two other helpers.

What I find particulary noteworthy about this piece of fascinating and disturbing history is the motivation for previously not issuing the death sentence to women as stated by the Public Prosecutor of that time, Suleiman Ezzat; "...women's crimes generally demand an element of mercy and compassion, such as crimes in which women are driven to kill their husbands' second wives or in which they poison someone who has brought them harm."

14 comments:

What a fascinating story Shaira, where do you come up with this information. I didn't know there was such a law at one time, but even today judges and juries show compassion to women what commit crimes when harm is brought to them or their children.

Death Sentence - very controversial and never ending so I best keep my trap shut - LOL.

Liz Carroll's music in Al-Baal Cafe is like a preview of upcoming attraction for me. To the vast expanse of spaces in Glasgow & Dublin, here I come for the egg hunt; are you ready to embrace me? - LOL :)

My comment is this, after the ripper had disappeared of the face of the earth 30 odd years prior.It seems very odd to me, that there was a british army base nearby, and once again, women were butchered.Its common knowledge that the ripper was either of royal blood or else of a high stance in the british aristocracy, but nothing has ever been proven, though its thought Queen Victoria took the knowledge to the grave of the rippers identity.At the time the murders happened in egypt, egypt was under british rule, with a lot of atrocities committed by british soldiers,gone unheard.So, whether these 2 women were patsies, in other words a cover up for the real killer, needs to be seen...